Supermarket Standoff

We have embarked on a taste test tour of supermarket foods. We nibble (or sip), we score, and we share the results to help you avoid the paralysis of Brand Choice Overload. Today's topic: grated Parmesan cheese.

Photograph by Gail Albert Halaban

Many of the posts in this series have covered items that, if you had the time, we would encourage you to make yourself. Parmesan cheese is a little different. By all means, if you have calf rennet and copper vats lying around, plus a few years to wait before you want to eat the stuff, be our guest. Otherwise, the best option is to head to a good market, find an authentic chunk (it should have the date of production and "Parmigiano-Reggiano" stamped on the rind) and grate it by hand.

But not everyone's going to do this. So we rated the pre-grated versions. To do it, we drizzled some olive oil on fusilli pasta and mixed in some Parmesan. We didn't want the cheese to be too heavy (because it usually isn't used as the primary flavor), but we wanted to be able to clearly taste it. Unfortunately, though, a few of them seemed to have more salt than actual cheese flavor--we just couldn't get a firm taste out of them. Descriptions ranged from "powdery" to "boring." Others charmed us. These were "lemony" and "nutty." Needless to say, these ranked high. And, it turns out, they were also the most healthy ones out of the bunch. Score.

First, some comments from Lippert: "Right off the bat, I'd go with the Organic Valley Parmesan Cheese. Organic dairy typically has greater amounts of CLA (conjugated lineolic acid), a healthy fat that may protect against cancer and obesity. Keep in mind, though, that the serving size on this particular brand is 1/4 cup, which is why the calories and sodium content are higher than other brands that note two teaspoons or one tablespoon as their serving sizes. After the organic factor, I looked to ingredient lists as usual. 365 and Trader Joe's ranked high with few ingredients."